Job Discussion Forums

[CPA]

Hello!

I am interested in teaching business English in Japan. I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States.

Can anyone share their experiences teaching business English? What type of people will I be working with? Will I be compensated higher because of my business experience and accountant certification? Is this a good field to go into?

Can anyone provide suggestions of recruiters or companies that might be looking for a teacher?

Should I find a job before coming to Japan, or start my search when I arrive? Can you recommend good cities to work in? What are the benefits of working in big cities versus less populated areas?

Thank you for any advice.

[taikibansei]

As I helped cause a bit of a problem on that other thread , let me try to make up for it by responding more helpfully here.

First, the good news: There are well-paying gigs for people with your background.

Now for the bad news: The best paying (company/corporate training) jobs tend to be very difficult to find, going to people with in-Japan experience, a work visa (as they don’t normally sponsor), local contacts...and especially luck. Also, while exceptions exist, these are typically part-time jobs; accordingly, it usually takes years to build up enough contacts to do it full-time.

Basically, unless a (very rare) university-level business English-related faculty search (one open to somebody without a Masters) gets posted here:

https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?ln=1

Your best bet for full-time work related to business would be to wait for somewhere like IES International:
http://www.iesnet.co.jp/english/employment.html
or Teach Away:
https://www.teachaway.com/teaching-jobs-abroad/business-english-teachers-tokyo
to run another Business English search.

Note the low pay--not much different from a position at an eikaiwa (English conversation) school (as your employer will be pocketing much of the fee). Speaking of which, you might also consider applying at an eikaiwa school, and then use your time in Japan to make the necessary business/industry contacts to go into company/corporate training full-time. E.g., these places:
http://recruiting.ecc.co.jp/
http://www.aeonet.com/

Finally, I would try to be as close as possible to Tokyo--far more potential for company/corporate work in Tokyo, especially as (I assume) you have little to no Japanese ability. (If you have even intermediate fluency in Japanese, your options increase substantially.)

Good luck!